RAHIM YAR KHAN: The municipal corporation (MC) of Rahim Yar Khan has been throwing huge quantities of sewage into the Adam Sahaba Distributary Canal for the last one year and the Environment Protection Department (EPD) is taking no step despite knowing about the issue.

The canal irrigates many areas of Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad and the people as well as their cattle drink its water.

The issue of disposal of sewage of the north western areas of the city, including Qaddafi Colony, Mastan Shah, Gulshan Usman, Mud Darbari, Haji Ahmed Colony, Hameed Town, Shafi Town and Mian Town, had been there for the last six years due to failure of mega sewerage project (MSP) launched in 2009-10.

According to the residents of Mastan Shah and Gaddafi Colony, many people have shifted to other areas in the last few years as sewage used to flood their houses due to collapsed sewerage in the area that was laid about 40 years ago. They say the then PTI MPA Asif Majeed had resolved the problem to some extent by releasing some initial funds but now sewage of these areas is being dumped into the canal.

A medical officer at the Rural Health Center (RHC), Chak 148-P, located near Adam Sahaba Canal, Dr Khushi Muhammad, says that after closure of the canal, it seems that it is just a sewage drain. He adds that the people of the area have stopped consuming water of the canal due to contamination and now they get water from either umps installed at the canal or buy it from the market for consumption.

MC Executive Engineer (EXEN) Muhammad Mukhtar referred this scribe to his subordinate Sub-Engineer Adnan to get knowledge of the reason of the disposal of sewage into the canal because he didn’t know facts about the issue.

Speaking to Dawn, Adnan says the main sewerage line opposite New general Bus Stand was damaged in 2022 and later the line on the Bypass Road was also damaged at different spots. The main sewerage is dead for the last several years due to these damages, he adds.

This sewerage exists in the jurisdiction of union councils, including 36-G, 37-H and 38-I, and it ends at plant II of MSP at Mao Mubarak Treatment Plant.

To give relief to the aforementioned localities, the MC installed the bypass system of four cusecs centrifugal pump at Chowk Pathanistan and water was being disposed of into Adam Sahaba Canal.

Adnan further adds that to address the issue, his office has sent repeated requests to commissioner, deputy commissioner, deputy director Planning, MC chief officer, municipal officer and all others concerned with all estimates of approximately Rs1.2bn. Recently, the MC and public health department sent a proposal of the current issues and solution to the collapsed sewerage.

“These schemes of fixing the problem were also sent to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) by the authorities concerned but due to the tender system all the previous schemes were shelved. Now a new scheme was in the pipeline, which would be given to the successful contractor after the tender process, Mr Adnan claims.

PTI MPA Asif Majeed says he had approved more than Rs7m funds in 2022 to resolve the sewage issue but his political opponents closed the sewage line with bricks and stopped the development work.

EPD Assistant Director Suraj Kumar says he will check the information about disposal of sewage into canal at Unilever Bridge after contacting all the officials and authorities concerned.

Dawn contacted ADCG (MC Administrator) Qandeel Fatima Memon on her cell as well as official landline number but she didn’t reply.

According to the Environment Protection Department (EPD), a team of Environment Protection Agency (EPA) team had visited the site and reached the conclusion that the inlet sewerage pipes belonged to the MC and it had written a letter to chief officer MC to remove these inlet pipes. Otherwise, action would be taken as per the law, Laraib Afzal, senior inspector EPA RYK, told this correspondent.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024